


ten years gone

by misskatieleigh



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-24
Updated: 2008-05-24
Packaged: 2017-12-12 19:47:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/815347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misskatieleigh/pseuds/misskatieleigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Never leave a man behind. That was John’s message from day one, clear and concise – the loyalty of his heart written in the surety of his tongue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ten years gone

**Author's Note:**

> moving old stuff from LJ, sorry if you read this ages ago

Never leave a man behind. That was John’s message from day one, clear and concise – the loyalty of his heart written in the surety of his tongue.

Rodney knows the answer of that promise. Knows the flicker of it in his heart when there is nothing but dark around and the cold is waiting on the edge to swallow him alive.

Never. Leave.

This is what Rodney knows. The days pass on, bed of rock and sand under his back and dust on his tongue. Soul caught up in a breath, held deep in his chest while he waits for that answer to come.

**

John is impatient. He can feel something, some blur on the edge of his conscience that is screamingshoutingpleading for him to catch a glimpse. To remember. A promise broken, ten years gone and still a knife slipped between his ribs, precise stab to his heart and left in place to staunch the flow of blood. Pull the metal free and die. Forget, and what is worth remembering?

Somewhere out in the stars, someone is waiting. A promise still waiting to be fulfilled.

**

Rodney can feel the time in his bones, creak of joints shifting as he moves across ground that is not home, under a sky that isn’t blue, isn’t John’s blue. He moves.

**

The transmission is scratchy, corroded by years and space but the voice he knows. Found him by chance, by luck, by fate – a message in a bottle in a sea so wide that it could swallow him down and he would be gone forever. Except not, because the answer is here. The message, the place is no longer lost.

The gate dials, event horizon.

**

He can see the circle now, up in the distance. One last chance – one last step before his body gives in to the crush of sky. He needs to drink more, needs to eat because the sky has a circle of blue now. The sky has an answer now, a promise that has not been forgotten.

The sky carries him home.

 

  
_Then as it was, then again it will be_  
_An' though the course may change sometimes_  
_Rivers always reach the sea_  
_Blind stars of fortune, each have several rays_  
_On the wings of maybe, down in birds of prey_  
_Kind of makes me feel sometimes, didn't have to grow_  
_But as the eagle leaves the nest, it's got so far to go_

_Changes fill my time, baby, that's alright with me_  
_In the midst I think of you, and how it used to be_

_Did you ever really need somebody, And really need 'em bad_  
_Did you ever really want somebody, The best love you ever had_  
_Do you ever remember me, baby, did it feel so good_  
_'Cause it was just the first time, And you knew you would_

_Through the eyes an' I sparkle, Senses growing keen_  
_Taste your love along the way, See your feathers preen_  
_Kind of makes makes me feel sometimes, Didn't have to grow_  
_We are eagles of one nest, The nest is in our soul_

_Vixen in my dreams, with great surprise to me_  
_Never thought I'd see your face the way it used to be_  
_Oh darlin', oh darlin'_

_I'm never gonna leave you. I never gonna leave_  
_Holdin' on, ten years gone_  
_Ten years gone, holdin' on, ten years gone_

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'ed. My second ever SGA fic. Lyrics are from "Ten Years Gone" by Led Zeppelin. Blame SPN fandom for the classic rock bleed through.


End file.
